1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to enterprise communications systems and practices. More particularly, the invention relates to a method and system for automated coordination and organization of electronic communications in enterprises.
2. Description of Related Technology
To become more efficient and competitive, businesses and industries strive to capture and streamline the business and communication processes or workflows they use to operate their respective enterprises. Best practices in accounting, financial transaction processing, order processing, inventory management and purchasing have benefited greatly from the use of information technology. In these areas of largely professional and managerial work, computers have been used extensively to support the work of individuals. However, information technology has been more difficult to exploit in the arena of electronic collaboration among individuals. A handful of general approaches has been used in order to leverage technology in the service of managerial and professional work: communications and messaging software, workflow software and decision support software.
Communications and messaging software focuses on the need for communication among the many participants in managerial and professional work processes. It can be used to breach the organization boundaries, both within and among organization, and is adaptable to almost any set of organization circumstances. Such flexibility can be advantageous when the requirements for communication are poorly understood or constantly changing. However, there are costs incurred for this same flexibility—tools must be reduced to their lowest common denominator in terms of functionality and, generally, not customized to the group or task at hand. Such software usually restricts form and functionality in order to increase usability by the general market of users. Thus, although conventional software tools enable the fundamental transmission of communications, conventional tools do not organize, target or streamline such communications automatically or align to how people work.
Workflow software is grounded in the paper metaphor of document routing. As a result, workflow software is better suited to repetitive, clerical document-processing activities than managerial and professional work. In contrast to clerical activities in which most decision situations are well understood and can be made by a single individual, managerial and professional work often entails decisions in which a number of people need to collaborate. This essential need for collaboration is the root of the perceived need for the large number of management-level meetings and multiple messaging that take place in most organizations. Thus, although conventional software tools define the steps performed by the workflow, conventional tools do not organize such workflow and processes automatically.
Decision support uses information technology to support individual decision makers with data retrieval and data manipulation capabilities that can significantly enhance the quality of their decisions. However, decision support software does not attempt to structure the roles played in the decision by various individuals, nor does it usually structure the interdependencies of more than a few closely related decisions. Thus, although conventional software tools enable decision support, they do not perform decision analysis, decision sharing and optimization in the arena of workflow and work-related communication processes.